How Long Does It Take To Build A Technology Empire?

Oracle Corp., one of the world’s largest software makers, reached $50 million in revenue in its 10th year. It took software king Microsoft Corp. eight years to hit that milestone.

Yet many technology start-up business plans typically project revenue of $50 million in the first five years. The reality, according to new research from data visualization company Tableau Software, is that most tech giants come nowhere near those numbers in the first five years.

In an effort to understand how fast successful tech companies grow, Tableau analyzed the financial statements of 100 of the largest (by market capitalization) publicly traded software companies. It then adjusted the sales numbers for inflation to compare the performance of these companies across more than three decades.